Mobile terminals or personal digital assistants (“PDA”) are often configured to enable a user to hold it with the palm of the user's hand facing the user. For some applications, it is preferable to configure the mobile terminal to have a gun shaped handle so that the user's hand is extended as if he or she were shaking someone's hand. Instead of designing two different mobile terminal housings to satisfy these two different configurations, it is desirable to develop a removable handle for a mobile terminal. The removable handle can be secured to the mobile terminal to allow a user to grasp the assembly in a first orientation and removed from the mobile terminal to allow a user to grasp the mobile terminal in a second orientation.
Removable handles are also utilized to add certain functionality to the mobile terminal. For instance, the mobile terminal may house an auxiliary battery, a wireless radio, a bar code reading module, RFID tag reader, a modem, global positioning system module, and/or a telephone module. The functionality provided within the handle are used in conjunction with the mobile terminal.
Applicants' co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09/999,004 filed Oct. 24, 2001 discloses various embodiments of a removable handle grip for a mobile terminal device. That application is hereby incorporated by reference into the present case.